The most important metrics for manufacturing

“It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data.” — Sherlock Holmes

It is often said that “good data drives good problem solving.” This couldn’t be more important than in today’s competitive manufacturing industry. Digitising the manufacturing floor delivers data and data delivers visibility and performance.

So what metrics are important to measure? Here’s a quick guide to some important metrics for your manufacturing business.

1. Overall equipment effectiveness (OEE)
OEE measures the effectiveness and efficiency of a manufacturing process. OEE measures availability x performance x quality of planned production time as a percentage.

2. Availability
Availability is the percentage of time the machine is available to produce, working properly and not in the middle of changeovers or adjustments.

3. Quality
Quality rate is the ratio of good output compared with actual output.

4. Manufacturing cycle time
Cycle time is the total time from the beginning to end of manufacturing – the time taken to convert the raw goods into finished goods.

5. Changeover time
A changeover is the process of converting a line or machine from running one product to another.

6. Throughput
Throughput measures the average number of units being produced on a machine, line, unit or plant over a specified period of time.

7. Capacity utilisation
This metric indicates how much of the total manufacturing output capacity is utilised at a given point in time.

8. Schedule or production attainment
This metric measures the actual production as a percentage of the scheduled production.

10. Yield
The product yield measures how many products of a saleable quality manufacturing can create.

11. Customer rejects/returns
This metric tells you how many times customers reject products or request returns.

12. Customer fill rate
This metric shows you the percentage of your orders that are shipped in full and on time as a percentage of all your orders.

These metrics deliver visibility – if you know what’s happening on a manufacturing floor you can improve it.

You can measure all these metrics with AspectPL. AspectPL is MES software that bridges the data gap between manufacturing work orders, production, quality and despatch – and integrates with any ERP system.